Bitter Suite Revenge
by gorgeousbowneyes
Summary: Cuts in after the teaser of The Bitter Suite. What would happen if Xena actually killed Gabrielle? What would she do? Slight XA eventually but not much.
1. Prologue

_**Bitter Suite Revenge**_

AN – This takes place during "The Bitter Suite" in season three. It takes over after the teaser, where Xena is holding Gabrielle above the cliff, about to throw her over the edge.

**Prologue:**

As Xena slowed her palomino horse to a stop, she looked out at the scene before her. A cliff, with a large drop down to the sea. This will do perfectly, she thought. She dismounted Argo, and walked around his left side to the back where a rope was tied to the back of the saddle. Her gaze followed the length of the rope down to its end, where it was attached to two very dirty feet. She looked at her once friend and pulled the ropes off of Gabrielle's feet. By now she was passed out from the hurt of being dragged behind a horse at a raging gallop, and was covered in ugly purple bruises. Xena bent down and gathered the blonde up into her arms and hoisted her above her head, as she walked to the edge of the cliff. Just as her emotions were running high, just as she was about to throw the girl over the edge, she felt her skin ripple, a tell tale sign that the God of War was around. She dropped Gabrielle at her feet and turned her back to the cliff. Standing there, in all his black leather, was Ares.

"How is it that you always know I'm here?" Ares asked, walking towards her.

"I can smell your stench a mile away, Ares." He laughed in his evil way.

"Is that so? Well you're the only human I know who can do that," he said, stopping a few metres away.

"Go away, Ares," she said turning her back on him.

"Oh, but I so wanted to see the show!" He exclaimed. "The mighty Warrior Princess, about to kill her best friend? I wouldn't miss it for the world!" She glanced at him, realising the implications. If she killed Gabrielle, what would that make her? A killer. A murderous, vengeful, killer. And isn't that exactly what Ares wanted? Was she playing right into his hands? Screw it all! She thought of her son's lifeless body, and Gabrielle's own daughter, how she killed him. If she had just listened to her! It was all her fault! She screamed, pain, vengeance and hate filling her voice. Unbeknowest to her, Ares smiled as he heard the raw emotion in her voice. She bent over and grabbed Gabrielle back up in her arms. She lifted her up to the sky, above her head.

"That's it, kill the little bitch. She's the one that cause you so much hurt," Ares said, walking closer to her as he spoke, so that he was right up behind her, to speak in her ear. "Kill her; she's the one responsible for your son's death. Let her feel the pain you feel, get your revenge on the murderous little bitch. Your son would want you to," he finished in a harsh whisper, his voice full of conviction.

She cried her famous battle cry, swung the body back for momentum, and then out over the cliff, letting go, to watch her fall, down, down, down into the swirling waters below.

"That's my girl."

-

AN2- OK, so I know short chapter, but it's only the Prologue. I had this idea while going through my collection and watching a few episodes here and there. So enjoy.

PS - I'm working on other fanfictions for different subjects as well as this, so you could expect an update in maybe a week? I'm not totally sure myself.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One:

A mighty warrior rode out across the plains, atop a magnificent horse, towards a vast army. The warrior was dressed in heavy leather armour, sturdy boots, plate metal over the leather on the chest, and gauntlets. The army was chanting the name of their leader, who was riding towards them. Her black hair flew out behind her as she gained speed, revelling in the sound of her name. "Xena! Xena! Xena!" As she neared her army, she pulled her horse to a stop.

"Today," she screamed out to them, "We will conquer! And what else are we going to do?" She demanded of them.

"Kill them all!" they roared back. She laughed in glee, as she turned her horse to face the grand city of Rome in front of them.

"Watch out, Caesar, Xena's coming, and you will prey for death by the time I'm done with you," she whispered. She laughed, then –

She woke up.

She sat up, alarmed by the vivid pictures of her dream. It had been three days since she had thrown Gabrielle over the cliff, and her dark side had been threatening to take over the whole time. She battled with it though, not wanting to become that woman again. She wept into her hands, these traitorous hands that had killed her best friend. Her grief consumed her and she fell back down onto the soft bed she was sleeping in.

Half an hour later, she wiped her eyes of the tears, feeling she had no more tears left in her. Where was she? She looked about the room, to the warm hearth, a slowly dying fire in the fire-place, over to the window in the wall, looking out at a warm sunny day in some bustling village. The colours were so vibrant, so much so they hurt. Nothing should be allowed to be that colourful, not when Gabrielle was dead. She looked back to the room. There was a small blanket box at the end of the bed, and sitting on top was her plate armour, gauntlets and her leather, while her boots were on the ground next to them. She was left in her under garment, the plain short cloth dress. She struggled to remember how she got here, and kept drawing up blanks. All she could remember was standing alone on that cliff and throwing her best friend over it. She cried a fresh. When the tears stopped flowing again, she paused. Hang on, alone on the cliff? No, she seemed to remember someone else there. Maybe it was just her mind playing tricks on her. She looked to the rest of the room and saw that it was richly decked out, with silks draped over the already silk curtains. The many colours of the room just made her feel all the worse. Why was everything so god damn cheerful? There was a dresser against one wall, with a bowl and a jug of water sitting on it, with cloths beside it and a mirror in front of it. She got up off the bed and walked to the dresser, poring luke-warm water into the bowl. She dipped a cloth into the water and washed her face with it, wiping the residue tears from her cheeks. She chucked it back into the bowl with a splash and turned to the other side of the room. There was a tall wardrobe on the other side of the bed, with one door slightly open. She walked around the bed and stood in front of it. She grasped the door knob and opened the door fully, to reveal silk dress of many colours and designs. She randomly pulled one out, a cheerful yellow and green, made a face and put it back.

"I didn't think that was your colour," a voice said from the doorway. She spun around in alarm, taking a defensive stance. She looked to who had managed to get through the door without her hearing it and groaned. Leaning against the door frame was a man she knew all too well.

"Ares, what do you want?" she said, as she turned back to the wardrobe.

"Me? I just wanted to talk. I mean after last night, we have some planning to do," he said walking up to her, standing behind her.

"Last night?" she questioned casually.

"Yeah, when you asked me for an army," he stated, placing his hands on her hips.

"When I WHAT?" she spun around, pushing out of his embrace.

"That's right, you heard me. And that wasn't all we did." He walked to the bed, sat down on it and laughed.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't tell me you don't remember spending a night with the God of War?" he said, indignant. "When we, you know, and then, well, you know."

"No, I don't know, Ares."

"Are you going to make me spell it out for you? Or should I just show you," Ares commented, walking towards her, so close that his lips touched with hers. She pushed him off with a horrified groan, memories flooding back to her. She had wondered into this village last night and called for Ares in her despair. She was falling, falling into her old self, into the darkness. She had asked for an army, asked to be the Destroyer of Nations. He had agreed, as long as she did his bidding when he needed an army. He had said together they could rule the world, and seduced her back to both his fold and his bed. She remembered her dream.

"Yes, that's right, Xena, the army you dreamed is real and it's waiting for you. But, you cannot go to it yet. There are things I want you to do first, hence the silks."

"I don't want your army and I'm certainly not doing anything for you," she spat out at him.

"What else are you going to do then? What purpose do you have? Now little Blondie is gone, killed by yourself no less, there is nothing to keep you to this "good" side. Where will you go? No one will take you, not even your mother." She looked at him, then looked away. "Especially since you promised not to kill innocents any more. So, you may as well stay with me," he continued.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked, defeat and despair evident in her voice. Ares laughed and walked back to the wardrobe.

"Choose a gown. Put it on, then come out of this room and I'll tell you more. There are things to fix your hair with in the drawer in the dresser over there. Be quick about it too." He disappeared from the room with a snap of his fingers. Xena turned back to the wardrobe and sighed. How she hated silk.

-

Joxer rode out of the Amazon village with a party of six of the best Amazonian warriors. They rode towards Corinth, where their informant had told them Xena had spent the night. They had seen her brutal murder of Gabrielle, her standing alone at the edge of the cliff, and throwing her into the sea below. Now the Amazons were intent on avenging the death of their princess. Joxer didn't know how much help he could be, but he wanted to at least witness this. He couldn't believe what Xena had done. He had always respected her and the friendship she had with Gabrielle. He couldn't understand why it happened. He just couldn't. And so he rode with the Amazons also wanting revenge, but also wanting proof that Xena truly had turned back to her dark ways.

-

AN - OK, so not as long as I had hoped, but still, i thought this deserved an update. Just a small note about saying that Xena had spent the night in "Corinth", I don't know where that village is or whether its anywhere near where Gabrielle's Amazons were but it was the only name I could think of that I had heard in Xena. So if there is any special meaning to that place please disregard or tell me a better village/town/city (had to be a fairly big place) Thanks for your reviews! Oh and I know I said only slight XA, well I kinda changed my mind then changed it again, so for this chapter there is a bit of suggested XA but not much. And things will change a bit in the next chapter.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:

He paced back and forth in the small sitting room just outside the door. In the room beyond was the expensive room he had hired at the local Inn when Xena had come to him. Nothing was too good for his Xena. His Xena? What right did he have to call her his own? She was wild, at least she used to be, and nothing would ever control her. The fact that she basically gave in to him without much of an argument worried him. There was no way normal Xena would just give in to the God of War. He hadn't thought that the death of Gabrielle would affect her this much. Sure they were good friends, but surely she realised that Gabrielle was influencing her judgement, judgement which normally would never have allowed some little girl to kill her only son. Ares sighed. He had to be more understanding! She had just lost her son and her best friend, and then woke up to find that she had done what she never thought she would do again. She had killed in cold blood. And what's more she had turned back to Ares. He laughed, liking the way everything was turning out.

-

After Ares left, Xena sat back down on the bed, trying to understand the memories of the night before and her reasons behind it. What had made her do such a thing? What reason could she possibly have had to turn back to Ares? Then dark thoughts started to surface. Originally, she had turned to fighting to protect her own village. Then she met Caesar and shared a passion with him, believing that they would conquer the world together. Then he betrayed her, and ended up causing the death of her Gaelic friend. If that was enough last time to drive her to do terrible things, what Gabrielle had done was surely worse. Gabrielle was her best friend in the entire world, and then she betrayed her by directly lying to her, and that resulted in the death of her son. If the death of a friend and the betrayal of a once-lover was enough to turn her, then the betrayal of her best friend, who she trusted the most, and the death of her son, surely was excuse enough to want an army and to want to be what Alti promised her so long ago, the Destroyer of Nations. And she knew one particular God who would not only be able to make that come true, but would be very willing to help. So she had called for Ares, thoughts of hate consuming her, like they were now, hating the world and everything in it for everything it had done to her. They all deserved what was coming to them. She stood back up off the bed and searched through the cupboard until she had chosen.

-

They had rode into town around midday, on the same day that, unbeknownst to them, Xena had woken to find she had fallen back in with Ares. Ephiny dismounted from her husband, Phantes the centaur. Some six centaurs had agreed to carry the Amazons to Corinth, while Joxer was stuck with an ordinary horse. The Centaurs wanted to see as well if one of their old enemies had turned from the light back to her dark ways.

"I really hope we were wrong about this," Phantes said, as he waited for the others to wind down from the long ride.

"How can you doubt what you and I both saw?" Ephiny questioned her husband growing angry. "We both saw her throw Gabrielle off that cliff and to her death! If we hadn't raced after Xena when she kidnapped Gabrielle we would never have known for sure, but we did and we do know! If anything, Xena has to pay for the murder of an Amazon Queen-to-be!"

"I know this, Ephiny, but I can't help but hope that she hasn't completely turned," he said in a strong but low voice that meant he was getting angry and frustrated.

"I know, Phantes, and I'm sorry. I wish the same thing, and hope that she is still the same Xena we named our son after," she replied in a softer voice, knowing that they didn't have time to argue. He caressed her cheek, re-assuring her.

"So, how exactly are we going to find her?" Joxer interrupted, ruining their moment. He blundered his way over to them. "And how will we be able to tell if she is bad or not? I mean we can't just be all like 'Hey Xena! We were just wondering if you've turned evil lately?' I mean come on as if she would fall for that if she was evil!"

"Although he said it stupidly, Joxer's got a point," an Amazon said, walking over to Ephiny and Phantes.

"I do?" Joxer said looking confused and delighted at the same time. The Amazon warrior rolled her brown eyes and looked back to Ephiny. "How will we tell if she's truly changed?"

"It is a good question, Phillipa" she said to reassure the young woman that she had done the right thing in taking up Joxer's idea. "I have a feeling we'll know though. Evil Xena has a habit of making it known when she wants to destroy something." Phillipa nodded, accepting this for now.

"Come, let us find something to eat from the market place," Phantes said. "I'm starved from the long ride."

-

He stood quickly as the door began to rattle. It swung outwards and a stream of bright light gushed out, obscuring his view. Damn! He had forgotten how brightly lit that room was already in this short amount of time. As his eyes adjusted, he looked back to the doorway to see her standing there, in a close fitting black gown that sparkled with little tiny traces of glitter. As she stepped out of the door way, Ares was reminded of the night sky, when all other lights were turned out. The dress was mainly held up by the support of her breasts, as the thick straps were designed to fall off the shoulder and sit loosely around her arms. It followed her curves until it reacher her hips, where it flowed straight down, with many gathers, making a slim but full skirt, that rustled as she walked. To suit the elaborate and sparkling style of the dress, she had braided strands silver thread in with her black hair and pulled it back into a low pony, with some hair still out to frame her face. She looked absolutely stunning. He snapped out of his revere as she walked closer, and he closed the distance between them, taking her in his arms. How could he resist her when she looked this beautiful? He kissed her softly on the mouth, savouring the fact that she was responding with the same passion he had. He slowly broke away and looked her in the eyes.

"Xena, you look more exquisite than words can describe." She just smiled back at him. "But the look is missing something," he said looking puzzled. He stepped back a pace and looked her up and down again, his mind calculating. "Ah, I know," he said after a moment's thought, and in one graceful movement, he swept his hand behind his back and then out again, as if he had reached for something, grabbed it and brought it back out to show her. And indeed it looked like that was exactly what he had done. Now resting in the palm of his hand was a small wooden box, elaborately carved with many symbols and designs. It was square in shape and just larger than his palm. He opened the box to show her what it contained. Inside was necklace, made of diamonds and white gold. It had a white gold chain at the back, the two little lattices on either side with three white gold chains extending from each to meet at the centre at three different little lattices encrusted with diamonds. The whole thing sparkled brilliantly, and could probably afford to buy a whole village and renovate it so that the houses were all brick with proper roofs and all. But nothing about how expensive it was entered Xena's mind, so pre-occupied with how that would look around her neck she didn't even think where Ares had got it from. She gasped out loud, and Ares smiled, taking the necklace out of it's box, and put the box aside. With the necklace in his hands, he walked back the few paces between them, and Xena turned around, so her back was to him, a smile on her lips. He reached around her shoulders and delicate hair-do and grasped the other side of the necklace to secure it around her ivory neck. Xena turned back around. It suited her and the outfit perfectly. "Now, that's much better," Ares murmured in her ear, still close to her body. He stepped back. "We've spent enought time here, we need to get on with business."

-

A/N: OK, I have a few things to say so bare with for a little longer please. 1st - Thank you for all the reviews. 2nd - I mention Destroyer of Nations and Alti in this story a bit, but some people may think that my chronology is a bit off considering that part of the story is revealed in S4 and the episode that my story started in was in S3. Well I considered that as it's Xena's past she obviously already knows that, lol. Just thought I'd clear that up if anyone was interested. 3rd - There is a link to where you can find a pic that is similar to what the necklace I describe looks like on my profile. Keep in mind that this picture is made of pearls and emeralds as well, where as Xena's is just white gold and diamonds, and also that she only has three strands, as I thought that it looked too much to say more than that. 4th- I would just like to say that I only have seen seasons 1, 2, 3 and half of four so far, but I do remember some things from the rest of the seasons from watching it when I was little. I'm still tracking down the other seasons (and saving the money to buy them). So yeah if anything is off (hopefully it wont be because this is based in the 3rd season) just let me know, OK? So thanks for reading this really long A/N !


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